Restoration Historic and Modern at Jersey City Library
The Jersey
City Public Library Greenville Branch was built in the early 1920's, and had
been subjected to several renovations and upgrades in the ensuing decades. Architectural and lighting changes unrelated
to the historic context had obscured the original design and the space was no
longer being utilized to its full potential.
Illumination
Arts designed contemporary lighting solutions that are sensitive to the
historic architecture but appropriate for 21st century tasks and
needs. Contemporary solutions for
theatrical and stack lighting work comfortably alongside decorative luminaires that
were based on existing and original historical designs. IA worked with a custom luminaire
manufacturer to restore the existing chandeliers and sconces, and designed new
ones to replicate the originals.
Contemporary, energy efficient light sources replaced the original
incandescent source to achieve a similar appearance.
At the
suggestion of IA, the original daylight collector was reactivated to bring
daylight from the roof down through original glass block tiles in the second
floor into the reading room on the first floor.
This brings natural light into the space, and reduces their dependence
upon electric light.
In achieving
the vision that the Public Library had for the Greenville Branch, Illumination
Arts also designed exterior lighting of the building to reveal the historic
architecture and create a nighttime signature for the surrounding community.
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PS16, Paterson, NJ Working
with Michael Graves & Associates, the new Schools Development Authority and
their guidelines for a 21st Century School
design, IA is designing the lighting for a new K-8 elementary school. The school is being designed to meet LEED
certification criteria. |
Last year, we announced the award of the I-74
Mississippi River Bridge and Corridor in the Quad Cities of Iowa
and Illinois. The economy, other priorities, and the
stimulus plan all conspired to delay the start of the project. So we're thrilled to announce that notice to
proceed has been given and final design for the project will begin this fall. |
LIRR Control
Theater
Large LCD
screens, computer monitors, a viewing platform and a 24/7 staff will be
occupying this space. IA is designing a
lighting system that will provide appropriate lighting to meet the needs of all
the users in the space, while minimizing glare on reflective surfaces.
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Clinton Street Bridge
This new crossing
over the St. Mary's River will create a nighttime signature for downtown
Fort Wayne, Indiana. Lighting concepts for this tied arch bridge have just begun development.
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GSA Federal
Acquisition Service Workplace Realignment and Sustainable Renovation
IA is
helping to achieve the GSA's goal of "providing a healthy, comfortable work
environment for all staff," by designing attractive, cost effective and energy
efficient lighting for their renovated workspace. The project is pursuing LEED Interiors
certification.
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On the Way
Center for Integrated Technology Learning at SUNY Purchase
Winona Bridge, Winona Minnesota
Lafayette Bridge, St. Paul Minnesota
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Springing into Fall!
It's hard to believe that 2009 is almost gone. While this
year has been painful for many in our industry, here at Illumination Arts we
have found the past several months interesting, challenging, and in some cases
downright joyous. January was our fifth
anniversary, a milestone we celebrated with some trepidation given the economic
outlook at the time. But new
opportunities continued to present themselves and if you look at the "In Design" section of this newsletter, you'll see ample evidence of that.
The slower pace (relative to
last year, at least) of the past few months has allowed us to focus on a
variety of other ventures, including professional development. The most valiant
effort award goes to Ken, who passed the LEED AP exam in June.
In July we moved to new offices, where we have room to continue growing and space that
allows us to collaborate more effectively with one another and with our
clients. We hope you'll have a chance to
visit us here.
We
continue to be grateful to all of those who have made this adventure so
successful and gratifying, and reiterate our promise to strive to exceed our
clients' expectations.
The IA Team
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Rockefeller Brothers Fund Headquarters
Continuing their mission to "build a more just,
sustainable, and peaceful world," the Rockefeller Brothers Fund built their new
offices to meet the criteria for LEED Interiors 2009, with the goal of
achieving Gold or Platinum certification.
The lighting design implemented strategies that reduce energy
consumption in several ways: lower overall light levels are supplemented by individually-controlled
task lights, occupancy sensors are used throughout the space, and daylight
sensors reduce electric lighting demands when daylight is sufficient.
Aesthetically, the lighting responds to the architectural
lines of the space, with slender linear fluorescent luminaires in the open
spaces, pendant hung over workstations and recessed in other shared
spaces. Decorative fluorescent
luminaires are used to minimize the contrast between the window recesses and
provide lighting for wall mounted artwork.
Undercabinet LED task lighting and desk mounted T2 fluorescent task
lights supplement the ambient light levels and allow the end users control over
the light levels in their space.
During an Open House where they officially welcomed
guests to their new space, RBF President Stephen Heintz spoke of how the design
of their offices beautifully reflects their commitment to sustainable design
and development. We are proud to have helped them achieve that goal.
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Green Notes
LED's:
Promise/Potential/Reality
It
seems that today even the average consumer cannot escape the LED. This
unique light source has burst into the public arena as one of the solutions to
our energy and climate problems, yet few understand the technology, its current
limitations and its potential uses.
LED
light sources hold a tremendous amount of promise as one of many tools in the
lighting designer's arsenal to design beautiful spaces that are also energy
efficient. However, they do have limitations and are not the panacea to
our energy problems that many product manufacturers would like us to believe.
Some
key things to know about LED's.
Size: Individual LED modules can be amazingly
small, and that small size can be a wonderful thing when we need to apply light
to small or confined space. But it takes many LED's grouped together to
produce a usable amount of light to illuminate a room or floodlight a
structure. This increases the size of the luminaire and the amount of
heat that luminaire will produce. This
in turn will increase the size of the components that allow this small light
source to operate properly.
Energy
Efficiency: Individual
LED's do not consume a lot of energy on their own, but as noted above, for them
to be effective in most applications, they must be grouped together. But
the true measure of the power requirements for an LED fixture lies in the power
consumed by the complete luminaire system. In the case of LEDs, this is
the wattage required to power the LED driver, an additional component in most
LED luminaires or systems.
Return on
Investment (ROI): At this moment in time,
there are few LED luminaires that have an ROI that is sufficiently short for
most clients. As LEDs become more
efficient and less expensive, the ROI will improve. It is still rare that the ROI can be
calculated just on energy savings alone.
If maintenance is an issue, the long life of LEDs may improve the ROI
substantially.
Heat and LEDs: LEDs do not
project heat out the face of the light source like an incandescent lamp, but they
do produce a great deal of heat out the backside of the circuit board.
LED luminaires require large heat sinks and sophisticated heat management to
assure that the heat is moved away from the circuit board to maintain
acceptable life and light output (both of which can be substantially reduced if
the LED overheats).
LED Rated Life: For traditional light sources, rated life is the point at which 50% of
the test lamps have ceased to function.
With LEDs, the rated life claimed by some manufacturers is unrealistic,
as LEDs do not burn out, but rather become ineffective. This impacts both the efficacy and the
calculations for the cost of maintenance.
White LEDs: The Quality Assurance process for LEDs known as binning separates LEDs
according to the range of color or color temperature in which that LED
falls. The accuracy of the binning can
be the difference between a uniform color of light and a patchwork of different
colors within that color range. To
mitigate this, be sure that the LEDs used are coming from a reputable source.
LED downlights: Great progress is being made in the
development of LED downlights for use in interior spaces. However, the cost of the luminaires remains
high, and understanding of maintenance and disposal remain unclear.
In short, while LED's are becoming an
increasingly useful tool for the lighting designer, just as with any other
light source, they have limitations and quirks that must be evaluated when
considering them for your next project.
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Who's Who @ IA
 Tara WhiteDesigner
Tara White is the newest member of the IA design team. Tara comes to us with a background in Interior Architecture, Art History, and Fine Arts, and experience in architectural lighting for both US and international projects. She has performed research and participated in studio and art history programs with Kyoto Seika University in Japan, The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Dubai, UAE and southwestern India. Her article "Furminals, Swarms, Mutations", exploring the role of the unexpected when combining functions in digital design, was published in the 2007 Form-Z Joint Study Journal.
Tara's past experience in lighting design was focused on creating elegant, sustainable, and meaningful designs that serve to highlight the architecture of a variety of infrastructure, hospitality, corporate, museum, and residential projects. In the future, she hopes to have an opportunity to provide safe, economical lighting solutions for the developing world.
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Did You Know?
Illumination Arts is a certified DBE/WBE/SBE with many state and local agencies
around the country.
We have
pursued these certifications to help our clients meet such state or federal
requirements and to add value to their project teams.
To learn more about IA's certifications, visit
our certifications page at www.illuminationarts.com/Certifications.htm.
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